Apple iPod mini 4GB - Blue [9436B/A] Best Buy

Friend or Foe? - 04 Nov 2007

3 out of 3 found this review helpful.

I expect if you are looking at this ipod to buy, then you are on a budget but you need more than say 1 or 2 Gb, which i expect is why you chose the ipod mini over the old nano (s). I bought mine back in 05, just after christmas (back when they were £179.99) and I was slightly annoyed when i was told i had the option of silver, silver or silver. I went ahead and bought one and I certainly didnt regret it. I bough the apple dock aswell (not quite sure why, but it cost me around £30!). I was very happy with it, and the 4Gb was not a problem as I didnt have many songs. However, after about 9/10 months, the battery began to stop holding its charge. I realised it was still under warranty. Unfortunately I forgot all about it and left it too late. I ended up, after about 16-18 months (after buying) replacing the battery myself with a replacement kit from maplin which cost around £20. It worked fantastically for maybe another 6 months or so but near the end of that, the play button on the clickwheel stopped working. Now the ipod refuses to turn on, even if plugged in.

I would reccommend this only to people that want an ipod rather than, say, a walkman 'pebble' (I dont blame you!), that dont have alot of money to spend on it, and to someone who doesnt mind sacrificing size in comparison to a nano, or even the new 'classic'.

I have now decided to upgrade to an 80Gb iPod Classic, due to my increase in the size of my music collection.

THE SUPER SMART KING OF MP3 PLAYERS - 08 Mar 2007

2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

The Apple iPod is without doubt of on this decades best new inventions and has really cornered the market. Its well built and heavy for it's tiny size and for the most part the click wheel is fantastic. For me to get more than half my entire music colection on one tiny device is a revelation. From years of hauling around cassettes to CD's If i'm going on a long trip or even a long bus ride. But if you look closer the iTunes software isn't so hot as it seems to crash if there is even a piece of dust on a CD !. Then there is the iPod's interface and complex menus which take luck more than ease to use !. The earphones are also very weak and you will need to buy some more to get the best from the music. I do think that Apple need to look again at the click wheel and the menus to make it easier to use. And then there is the battery issue on these early generation players , mine won't last more than 2 hours before a re-charge instead of the 8 hours. However this does not mean the end of the Mini as replacement Li-Ion batteries can be bought for as little as £5. They can be fitted as below - It must be pointed out that any warranty will be void when you open up the tiny casing -
1 , make sure the Mini has it's hold button on , and it's turned off.
2, gently prise off the top plastic cap and then the bottom one.
3, use a small 'Phillips' screwdriver to take off the top bracket.
4, unclip the bottom spring clip at the base of the Mini.
5, Then ease off the tiny serial connector at the base of the
Mini from The Motherboard which is attactched to the docking port.
6, Then ease out the whole motherboard from the casing from top to the Bottom.
7, Once you have the whole innards out turn it over to see the blue Li- Ion battery on the reverse of the LCD display.
8, Un-clip the five pin connector from the motherboard and remove the battery as one unit.
9, take your new battery and clip that back into the motherboard.
10, then just reassemble taking care not to snag the battery cable in the casing and don't break the motherboard ! or the LCD display.
11, Then make sure the new battery is in working order alow it to discharge fully then give it a full re-charge. The new batteries can last up to 20 hrs before a re-charge so it should give years of life to the now classic little player.
I'm sure all these problems have been fixed on the newer NANO if you can afford it which i can't !. But all in all it's still the best of the MP3 crop and on the whole the best buy.

IPod Mini - 27 Dec 2006

0 out of 1 found this review helpful.

I loved the iPod as soon as it came out and love it even more than the iPod nano - its large and bricklike appearance is quirky to say the least but I particually liked it as it is not too flimsy and more masculine than the iPod nano. I think the navgation is easy to work and logical and its software for the computer is near perfect. I love it.

It works - well worth it! - 12 Jul 2006

2 out of 2 found this review helpful.

I bought this thing in April 2005 and it still works fine. I've had 850 songs on it. The volume is low compared to my friend's iPod (that wouldn't fit in my pocket). But who really wants to go deaf by the time they're 30 anyway? The only problem I've had is that the earphones are starting to come away from the jack that connects to the actual body but I've not come across this notorious rechargeable battery problem. However the battery life is quite short - not sure what continuous listening time I could get but it's definitely more than 4 hours.

All in all I'm pleased with it. Earphones are fine - even though the black foam coverings have long been lost. Sound quality's fine. LCD screen is still intact. User interface is perfect. And it looks sleek as well! iTunes is very easy to handle and automatically converts tracks to the necessary format although I think it has problems with .wma formats. (Note: As seen by 3 reviews down a .wav is obviously humongous compared to .mp3 so you will have fewer songs if you don't convert).

The iPod - 04 Mar 2005

17 out of 17 found this review helpful.

I had always promised myself that when the iPod became affordable i would buy one. Apple have started to cater for the lower end of the market but the iPod shuffle just doesn't cut it in my opinion (1GB for £99, hellloooooo 2002!).

So anyways i saw this at £115 in the local John Lewis department store and so bought one. I wasn't expecting much. Knowing the creative processes and flops apple has gone through i was expecting this to be difficult and purely a style accessory. After 20-25 minutes my ipod was set-up and that was that, no messing, no overnight charging, simply charge for 2 hours and upload your itunes songs on automatically, needless to say i was impressed.

The other thing i had been skeptical about was the sound. Is everyone lese hearing what i'm hearing?!? its fantastic, even with the apple earphones and the fact that i encode at 96KBS MP3 its not far off hi-fi quality, the images just dont do this baby justice.

The battery life is fine, 6-7 hours easily and the fact you get a mains charger helps even more.

Now apple have launced the 6GB edition heres what you will get for your money:

A 6GB iPod mini (Cool!)
The usual periphals (Coolish!)
NO MAINS CAHRGER (Not so cool)

Yes, apple are not giving out the charhger with the new ones so unless your constantly near a PC you're in for trouble, this applies to the shuffles and the new 20gb and 40gb generations expected out soon. Do yourselves a favour, try and track down the old 4GB mini and give yourself piece of mind, you mite lose a few hundered songs but wouldnt you rather be able to actually listen on holiday, rather than having to wait until you come back to charge it, i know i would.